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Panama News Briefs

Not just a case of the nimbies

Anyone who has much experience with local politics in North America is familiar with the NIMBY phenomenon --- "Not In My Back Yard" is the basis for the acronym that describes people who oppose developments that they believe will affect their neighborhoods in adverse ways.

It is true that the most vocal and organized opposition to the Ancon Hill cable car project has come from people who live on Quarry Heights and don't want their quiet and clean neighborhood turned into a loud, trash-strewn tourist trap. But environmentalists, people with certain sensibilities about our places with symbolic historical value and those who simply don't like the privatization of our public assets have thrown their lot in with the neighbors. That's why the argument is far from over, and why we see signs like this one going up around the city.

The National Environmental Authority (ANAM) has approved the plans for the cable car project, but that approval is being challenged in the courts. The Torrijos administration apparently supports the project but Panama City's Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro has warned that the municipal government may not be amenable to granting some of the necessary city permits. That tangle is likely to cause enough delay for the project's opponents to mount a campaign that could mobilize sufficient political forces to kill the idea of a cable car between the Amador Causeway and the top of Ancon Hill.

Photos by Eric Jackson